NSA’s Surveillance Program Needs to be Stopped
For a country that takes so much pride in the fact that it is abundant with freedom, it is astonishing to find that America’s government acts in a hypocritical way by spying on its citizens. Every phone call that is made, every text message that is sent, and every Internet search that any individual makes is being monitored and recorded by the United States government. Due to its actions, the United States Government prompts citizens to ask a very critical question – Is it considered an infringement on our freedom and privacy if the government decides to monitor our actions? The National Security Agency’s surveillance programs go against the law, violate the privacy of citizens, and infringe on our rights. Possibly the most alarming fact about this entire situation is the fact that the NSA’s actions have been proven to be ineffective.
What if it was revealed that the President of the United States was violating both the Constitution, as well as a law passed by the Congress to protect Americans against abuses by a super-secret spy agency? What if, instead of apologizing, our Chief Executive said, "I have the power to do that, because I say I can."? This frightening scenario is exactly what Americans witnessed in the case of the warrantless NSA spying ordered by President George W. Bush that was reported by the New York Times in 2005. According to the news source, Bush signed a presidential order in 2002 allowing the NSA to monitor, without a warrant, the international as well as domestic telephone calls and e-mail messages of hundreds of thousands of people inside and outside the United States. “The program eventually came to include some purely internal controls, but no requirement that warrants be obtained from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court as the 4th Amendment to the Constitution and the foreign intelligence surveillance laws require” (Durden). In other words, the program had no independent...